By Xinhua writer Gong Yidong

    BEIJING, Oct. 22 (Xinhua) -- He has a mixture of roles: an enjoying international reputation, a reformist in China's most prestigious Peking University and a vigilant observer of problematic Chinese science systems.

    Rao Yi finds that he is not content to be a researcher hidden in labs and literatures. "Intellectuals should have a clear mind of social issues and make due contributions by speaking out and taking actions."

    He is most notable for his opinion article "A Fundamental Transition from Rule-by-Man to Rule-by-Merit" published on the London-based science journal Nature in 2005, in which he questioned the loopholes of China's Mid-to-Long Term Plan (MLP) of Science and Technology (2006-2020) and put forward straightforward proposals.

    But Rao, 47, says he himself is simple in mind. "I just want to do meaningful things aiming at the future. But don't forget, life's fun. You can only do things well when they are enjoyable."

    Born into an intellectual family in southern China's Jiangxi Province in 1962, Rao was determined to become a "scientist influencing mankind" when he sat for college matriculation examinations in 1978.

    The Cultural Revolution was just over, and China was immersed in "Spring of Science" unshackling people's mental and productivity bondage.

    Rao had hoped to study physics and mathematics at University of Science and Technology in Hefei, capital city of Anhui Province. But against his wish, Rao was enrolled by a medical college in Jiangxi Province.

    Five years later, he because a post-graduate student of Shanghai Medical University. The lively academic atmosphere, which was generated by the adjacent Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences (SIBS), provided eye-opening opportunities for his standing on the threshold of scientific research.

    "Seminars and lectures led by leading international scientists sharpened my vision of good science and narrowed the huge gap between China and the West in research."

    He focused his interest on the newly-born subject molecular neurobiology and went to the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) in 1985 to pursue his doctorate.

    UCSF, reputed for its biomedical sciences, allowed Rao access to a wide range of pioneering and inter-disciplinary research in genetics, developmental biology, structural biology and virology, among others. "The academic training at UCSF was very important tome, mainly due to its comprehensive spectrum.

    "On top of that, the U.S. scientists' attitude toward science influenced me greatly, as research was regarded as fun by them. This was quite different from the Chinese concept of scientists putting on a serious face all day long."

    Rao's spirit of independence, perhaps inherited from his father, which was suppressed so far, was also allowed to blossom in San Francisco. "Science requires innovation and frowns upon repetition. You can hardly rely upon others for new ideas, which complies with my temperament."

    Five years later, Rao's research on the "big brain" gene of Drosophila was published in Nature, launching his career as a professional neurobiologist.

    Upon graduation from UCSF, Rao followed up with a post doctoral fellowship at Harvard University. "I don't think Harvard is as useful as UCSF in my academic training, but I tried to enjoy the diversity of activities at Harvard, including the history of Russia and avant-garde films. You know, there are many interesting things outside science."

    Leaving Harvard, Rao took an offer in 1994 from Washington University in St. Louis and established his first laboratory, where he came to appreciate professionalism. "Personal relationship often overrides professionalism in China, but this is hardly acceptable in the U.S. The two things must be differentiated from each other in a clear manner."

    In the following years, Rao often traveled back to China and gave lectures at the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), which deepened his understanding of the difference between China and the United States in terms of environment for science and research.

    In 1999, Rao joined acclaimed neuroscientist Muming Poo and others in proposing and founding the Institute of Neuroscience (ION) affiliated with SIBS, in a bid to establish "a modern research institute" that provides an environment for rigorous scientific pursuit and fruitful interactions, "a merit-based system" for promotion and funding. A major characteristic of the new institute was its introduction of peer reviews conducted by international experts to promote research by their Chinese counterparts.

    Rao continued his observation of China's science systems and flung bombs one after another, culminating in his bold writing run by Nature. In the lengthy article, he criticized the administrative organs' tight control of science and technology funds and called on the establishment of a Premier's Office of S&T to replace the Ministry of Science and Technology, so that scientists are guaranteed with more freedom rather than being enslaved by funds handled by officials.

    "The Chinese S&T institutions and management systems have lagged far behind the economic sector. For the national leadership, a project bigger in impact and significance than all the MLP mega projects is to establish mechanisms in S&T that will allow professionals in China to achieve their full professional potentials and to focus their time and efforts on their professional activities," he wrote in the controversial article co-authored with other two prominent Chinese scientists Lu Bai andZou Chenglu.

    Rao identifies himself as "a critical constructor", and he is happy to find that China's science development has been going on much better now than 25 years ago, when there was "little research done by native scientists."

    But, in Rao's view, the Chinese education also calls for imperative reform. He says, "Traditionally, Chinese students are expected to get high grades and behave appropriately at the expenses of their personalities and innovation potentials. The so-called good students will meet many problems when they are confronted with research and the real world. From a more macro perspective, it will be difficult for them to adapt to the social demands in the future."

    It was at this point that Rao was invited by Peking University to take the deanship of its School of Life Sciences in 2007.

    By that time, Rao had been an associate director of the neuroscience institute in Northwest University in Chicago for three years, but he decided to come back to China after pondering over the options. "Many of my friends disagreed, but I deemed it would be far meaningful to contribute something concrete and solid to China when it is undergoing 'a phase of exponential growth'. At the same time, my cultural identification of being Chinese determined my return, too."

    Under his leadership, the school went through a package of reforms covering teaching, research, culture and management. The ultimate aim is to "allow the students' potentials to develop to the largest degree so that they will be intellectual leaders in the future".

    Rao believed that the current teaching model has deprived students' initiatives to explore the essential uncertainties of science. Take the lab courses for example, teachers ask students to do experiments that are almost guaranteed of success, which is exactly opposite to real research.

    Rao changed the rules and requested that experiments similar to real research be added to lab courses to foster the students' exploring capabilities. One undergraduate lab project was to find genes affective reproductive aging, which is not well understood and there is a lot of uncertainties about its outcome and interpretation.

    The number of lectures and seminars has been increased substantially. "The School tries to foster an atmosphere wherein the faculties and students respect and enjoy each other. It also tries to foster a culture, within which students and faculties will be able to conduct creative research of great value and long-term effect," Rao says.

    Rao also implemented a whirl of reforms in the school's governance. Close breeding is replaced by peer reviews and the annual monitoring of research result gives away to a long-term mechanism that encourages the researchers' dedication to science. Specialized committees composed of professors come to play their roles in deciding the procurement of equipment and formulation of courses.

    But Rao knows, similar to the science development in China, the improvement of its ill education needs time and patience, and he is ready to overcome the obstacles.

    "In a word, we should endeavor to seek an education that empowers the future of China," he says.